


The Adventures of Taha and Alein

by MuninYhugiN



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Adventure, Duskwight Elezen (Final Fantasy XIV), F/M, Idiots in Love, Miqo'te (Final Fantasy XIV), Mutual Pining, Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 16:41:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29969301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuninYhugiN/pseuds/MuninYhugiN
Summary: The unordered, unfinished adventures Taha Fuhrah and Alein Croftmoss.Eventually I'm going to (hopefully) put all these bits and pieces into a real story some day. But for now, enjoy these snippits and snapshots of my two OCs going about their adventures.NSFW chapters, if any, will be marked.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	The Adventures of Taha and Alein

Honestly, they couldn't have chosen a worse time to set out. Just a couple of days into their trek to Fallgoard Float it and it had been pouring rain the whole time, with nary a break in the clouds or anything less that a heavy drizzle. 

The first day, Taha dubbed it a minor setback, as they followed the road, light with excitement that was only somewhat dampened by the rain. They set up camp under a convenient overhang, protected enough from the wind and rain on two sides to fit their little tent and a fire outside. After they pitched the tent, Taha collected a small pile of sticks and down wood for a fire, while Alein busied himself with leaning a collection of down branches and bark pieces against the roof of the over hang on the open sides in an effort to keep some of that fire's heat in. Taha tried to start it with a fireball. Being a Black Mage had its advantages, but wet wood was wet wood. She wrung out her armor and clothes and draped them over a couple of sticks along with her boots near the fire circle, quickly pulling on a dry woolen robe to suffice in the meantime before Alein finished his project.

Once he deemed their site sufficiently sheltered, Alein ducked into the overhang and dug through his inventory in search of some dry clothes. Taha politely pulled her hood up and turned away to continue working on the fire when he started pulling off his soaked armor, draping it like she had on some leaning sticks to dry. It took a solid half a bell to get the wood dry enough to hold onto the flame, but eventually she got it to catch. Clad in a colorful dry sweater and pants, Alein sat cross-legged beside her and gave her a friendly nudge when she succeeded, before leaning forward, elbows on his knees with his chin on his fists, watching her from the corner of his eye. Taha shivered and hugged her knees staring into the flames.

“I'm sure it'll clear up by morning,” he said brightly, but he chewed on his lip anyway. Angry thunder rolled above them. 

They both slept uneasily.

\---

Morning came to a miserable grey drizzle, dry clothes that smelled like campfire smoke, and mostly dry armor. Taha woke cold to a close-up view of Alein's back, warmth radiating off of him as he snored softly into his pack-turned-pillow. She shivered and breathed into her hands, scowled, and told herself it wouldn't be right to just latch onto the sleeping Elezen. Instead, she got up to bring the fire back to life from its bed of embers.

The pile of sticks she had collected that evening had dried out a little bit from their proximity and caught far easier than before. Soon the fire was crackling and hissing, Taha stuffed the little kettle into the side of it to heat up water for tea and oatmeal, then miserably wandered away from camp to take care of morning business. She returned lightly damp, and huddled close to the fire again. Behind her, she could hear Alein starting to wake up, finally crawling out from under the tarp as the kettle whistled.

Alein sleepily accepted the cup of tea Taha handed him and mumbled his thanks through a yawn. A glance at his shivering companion angrily stirring two bowls of oatmeal, ears pinned back dejectedly, tail curled tight around herself, and Alein set down his cup, and fetched her blanket from the tent to drape over her shoulders. Her ears perked up in surprise.

“You can have mine too... if you're still cold.” He said scratching his head, pushing down the the urge he felt to gather her into his lap and hold her there until she was warm again. Instead he watched her pull the blanket around her and up over her head, then accepted the food she handed him.

“Thank you...” She flashed him an appreciative smile and sipped her tea. “How are you not freezing?”

Alein shrugged. “There's more of me than there is you.” He said before practically pouring his breakfast down his throat.  
“And this sweater that my mom made is crazy warm.” He briefly considered the thought of the little Miqo'te in the sweater with him, then inwardly scoffed at the absurdity.

“I'm impressed. I've never had the patience to knit a sweater,” she mused. “That's a lot of love right there.”

Alein laughed. “Love and necessity. Dad always said 'clothes ain't cheap, boy. You wear them sweaters.'” He fondly picked at the ribbing along the edge of his sleeve.  
“Mom would unravel the one she had made the year before and make a new one out of it with a little extra yarn to finish. Then she'd sigh and tell me to stop growing so fast.”

Taha nodded. “I had a feeling that was the case. You have a lot of different colors in that thing.” She smiled, “It looks cozy. Your mom does nice work.”

\--- 

After breakfast, they dressed in their smokey – but dry – clothes and armor, broke down camp, and set out again.  
The river nearby was swollen fat with rainwater and lapped the road in some lower places. A few bells of walking later, there suddenly was no road, the water had crept up around their boots and was steadily rising. Thunder growled over head and the sky tore open into a downpour that instantly drenched the both of them to the skin. Despite her self, Taha let out a frustrated whine, and shouted a slew of swears up at the sky that made Alein blush in surprise at their filth.

They trudged on through the flood water in search of a place to get up and out of the rain, occasionally dodging an excited Eft wiggling past. What was muddy, ankle-deep water on Taha, soon rose to slosh around her knees; then to her waist. Alein, who's height had the water around his thighs, stayed close by her side, ready to catch and steady her as she stubbornly pressed on through the current, ignoring the cold ache that eventually turned to a numbness that was slowly seeping into her limbs.

There was nowhere to hide from the storm, no low tree branches to climb up onto, no cliff-side outcroppings to hide under. Alein braced himself against the pull of the current, the water had risen to his waist. Taha was trying desperately to continue on, adamantly refusing his offer of a ride on his back. The water flowed over her shoulders, a foot caught on a slippery rock and the current pulled her under and away. Alein reached out and caught her before she was washed away too far and scooped her up out of the water – mostly – as she coughed and shivered and tried to curl herself into his relative warmth, her whole body felt tense and shook in tiny vibrations that only being miserably cold and wet could conjure. He caught a brief glimpse of her face before she buried it against his neck, her lips were starting to turn blue. Her nose and cheeks felt icy against his skin, ears laid back against her sodden hair didn't even twitch at the thunder rumbling. Her tail hung limply over his arm under her legs.  
_Well this isn't good..._

With renewed determination, Alein pressed on, hugging Taha tightly to him.   
Finally, peering though the curtains of rain, he spotted a cliff-face. He found shelter on top of a boulder under an uprooted tree that had fallen off the side from erosion, the thick trunk and umbrella of roots kept most of the rain off of their hiding space, though it was far from dry and had no place to set up camp. Alein thanked the Twelve for it as he hoisted Taha up. He scrabbled up the side of the rock and fished the tarp for the tent out of his inventory. He pulled her onto his lap and draped the tarp over them, tucking it under and behind himself to keep as much heat in as possible.  
He pulled off a glove and gently smoothed Taha's hair out of her cold face, picking a couple of twigs out as he went. For her part, Taha mumbled something unintelligible and clumsily tried to bat his hand away, succeeding only in awkwardly pawing at his arm and front before giving up and letting her head loll against his shoulder. She still felt ungodly tense, but had stopped shivering, mostly. Alein wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He put his glove back on and shifted his friend in his lap a so there was a little more contact between them, then hunkered down into an uneasy sleep, dejectedly wondering if they would wake up in the morning.

\---

Luckily, morning came with sunshine peeking through the clouds and thunder rolling far in the distance. Alein peeked out from under the tarp and grinned at the distinct lack of rain. The flood waters still flowed high. His whole body ached from the cold and being stuck in the same position for so long.  
He gently shook Taha awake, after a moment of worry, she stared up at him blearily, taking in his concerned but hopeful expression as she pieced the night back together in her head. He lifted her up a little and groaned as he stretched out his legs from their folded position, cracking and popping as he did so. She tried to roll herself off of his lap but he held her there, she felt fairly numb and exhausted and didn't further fight his hold.

“There's not a lot of room on this rock,” he sheepishly explained. “I don't want you to go sliding off.”

As she processed this information, joining him in stretching cold, stiff limbs, they jumped at a shout coming from close by. A Hyur man in a little boat was guiding his vessel toward them.

“Seven Hells! Were you kids caught up in that bleeding storm last night?” he called up to them, holding his boat steady on the fallen tree.

“Yah, it was terrible, my friend here isn't alright...” Alein replied, relief tainted by worry threatening to drown him.

“Well get in, a few of us are running rescue recovery. I can give you a ferry to Fallgourd Float.” The Hyur secured the boat against the rock and tree, then held out his arms. “Pass the little thing down to me, lad.”

He reluctantly lowered Taha down to the man in the boat then slid down the rock himself into the vessel. He settled himself down in the boat and wrapped the tarp tighter around Taha, and helped her sit up. She hunched down cross-legged in front of him, he stretched his legs out on either side of her. The Hyur frowned and began the paddle back to town.

“You better get your little girlfriend to a healer, lad. She's not looking so great.”

“...Cold...” Taha hissed through clenched teeth.

\---

Finally arriving at Fallgourd Float, the man docked his boat and waved them off, directing them to the inn. Alein half supported, half carried Taha as she stumbled and staggered beside him, intent on making it on her own. The stairs of the inn proved to be her downfall and she conceded to Alein scooping her up and carrying her to their rented room. She felt so cold and tired, she just wanted to sleep and be done with everything. She slurredly told her friend so as she fumbled with the buckles on her boots. 

Alein had already shed his sodden clothes and was pulling on a pair of pants with his back to her, she caught a glimpse of his grey legs and behind before she realized she was staring and tried to focus on the next buckle.   
_Gods damn it, why was this so difficult...?_  
He turned to dig though his inventory for his sweater and noticed her struggling, still fully clothed. Alein tossed the sweater over the back of the chair Taha was sitting in and knelt down in front of her, swatting her hands away from the buckles, quickly undoing them and pulling off her boots and dripping socks. Her feet felt icy cold. He glanced up at her and caught her expression; cold and worn out and exhausted and a little embarrassed.

“D-do you need help with the rest of it?” He asked, swallowing.

Taha nodded in a tired sort of way that conveyed her abashed acceptance to the situation and he nodded back and made quick work of the buckles on her armor, shucking off the wet leather top of it. He bid her stand and he turned her away from him so he could peel off her shirt and bra. She barely had time to cover herself before she was drowning in the wool of his sweater as he pulled it over her head. Her pants and smalls were tugged down next, under the cover of knitting, as she lost her arms in the sleeves of the thing. She leaned heavy against him as he dug though her inventory with one hand, the other holding her steady, while he searched for her sleep pants. They were found and put on, and he toweled off her wet hair and tail, then finally Alein ushered her over to the bed, tucking her in with the blankets provided as well as both of theirs. Her brain sluggishly noted that she should be embarrassed by her inability to dry off on her own.

“You stay here and get warm.” He said, pulling a shirt on. Taha watched him, peeking over the pile of blankets, an odd feeling settling into her chest. He looked so tired, she wished he would just lay down and sleep. She tried to tell him that she would be fine and that he needed to take care of himself now, but it came out slurred and mumbled. He gave her a soft smile and patted the blankets over her before plunking down into the chair closest to his boots.

“I'm going to find you a healer.” He decided to forgo socks, to not wet yet another pair, and shoved his feet into his boots with a grimace.  
“Be right back!” He waved as he went out the door.

Taha curled up under the blankets and pulled his sweater up over her face. It smelled heavily of campfire smoke and a scent that was distinctly Alein. She closed her eyes and let sleep take her, only to be woken up what felt like moments later, to the gentle prodding of a healer taking her pulse and checking her over, then a warm, tingly feeling of healing. She only half listened at the healer explained something about slowly warming up to Alein then left. She felt his large hand rub her legs and his weight sink the mattress as he sat next to her.

“The healer said I need to get you warm.” He told her. “Looks like we're gonna be cuddling some more. I hope that's alright...”

Taha made a noise of acknowledgment, Alein got up and arranged their wet belongings by the fire to dry – again –, and finally went to lay down.  
She groaned at the rush of cool air from the blankets being pulled back, but was was quickly silenced by Alein's warm body against her back, long arms wrapping around her, his chin resting on the top of her head. She felt him take a deep breath and release it in a tired sigh, at last able to succumb to the exhaustion of their ordeal. As they drifted off, he found both of her chilled hands and held them between his.


End file.
